Adidas plans for Brazil World Cup

14 June 2013

LONDON: Adidas, the sporting goods brand, wants to be the most engaging brand at next year's World Cup in Brazil, a senior executive has declared.

Nicole Vollebregt, senior vice-president of global marketing, told Marketing Week at an Adidas Lab event in London that the brand would look to imitate its successful use of social media during 2012's Olympic Games, and was already building its in-house capacity.

"We're going to bring fans along with us on the World Cup journey and give them access to content and experiences that they've never had before," she stated.

"That's something only we can bring because as a sponsor we have access to teams, players and assets that no one else has," she added in a veiled reference to rival Nike, which is not a sponsor but is the official sportswear partner of the Brazilian national team.

She also claimed that Brazilians and Adidas had football in common. "They're the football nation and we're the football brand and that shared passion is something we're really trying to tap into for 2014," she said.

"I think we're in a unique position to encapsulate the whole essence of Brazil from pitch to street," she argued, "and this will be the first time you'll see a World Cup effort from us that's holistic – both sides of the brand from sport to style."

She rejected a suggestion that the brand's "formal and efficient" values would not play well in Brazil. "Our brand can be serious when we talk about innovations but that's changing and we're becoming less rigid in the way we present the brand – a lot younger and a lot fresher," she said.

Vollebregt also enthused about the tournament's possibilities as a showcase for its new technologies. "The World Cup is a stage where we launch all our new innovations," she said. "It's something we really work towards and get excited about."